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Hmm...okay. You are getting a bubble, and you've got another craft that reported works, so at this point I'm inclined to think there might be a mod conflict. Which specific mods have parts represented on your ship? You've already mentioned a KSS fusion generator and of course the warp drive is there, plus I'm seeing a crew centrifuge unless I'm much mistaken; what else do you have there? I'd look at those mods first for potential conflicts.

To be honest, I don't know where I'd look to check that. Haven't fiddled with it anyway - I guess it's "default", for all the more good that says. I'll see if I can find it next time I fire up the game.
The approach is not at full throttle through. Generally I crank the drive's thrust limiter to somewhere around 25% upon entering a planetary SOI; it was a habit I got into pre-brakes.
It's proving difficult to type exactly what I'm doing/seeing, so I'll record/post a video next opportunity I get. Hopefully it will clarify things.

I made the switchover yesterday and am now running Pathfinder 1.32.1.0 on KSP 1.6.1.
EPL hasn't yet been updated for KSP 1.6.x; KSP-AVC reports that the latest version of EPL (for 1.5.1) is incompatible with 1.6.1. That might be part of the issue. As far as I can tell, though, I still have working launchpads. I haven't tried to use any OmniConverters yet; will do that and see if see the same as the rest of y'all.
Doing some sandbox testing on Kerbin this evening. Quick question:
The box for the Castillo drilling rig appears to be a lot smaller than the other boxed parts. Is this intentional, or do I have an issue somewhere?
Tried out the adapter; it promptly exploded on deployment, so I'm guessing I was trying to use it incorrectly. Couldn't get the drill rig to attach to the arc reactor either.
Also noting that while I can get the Prospector on Casa Geology Lab to make Slag, I can't get a Pondrosa or Claimjumper Prospector to do it. I can live with this arrangement, but again I'd like to know if it's intentional behavior or not.

Wish I could take credits for the four names I generally use that have stuck - Strange Cargo, Next Objective, Necessary Evil and Laggin' Dragon. Those were originally all nicknames for four of the Silverplate B-29s of the 509th Composite Group, 393d Bomb Squadron during World War II. Over the years I've used some of the other names employed by the squadron - Some Punkins, Full House, Straight Flush, Jabit III, The Great Artiste, Bockscar, Enola Gay...
Why those four in particular? I just like the sound of them. A bit morbid? Definitely. Same goes for naming my refinery outposts after the sites of major oilfield disasters.
Others are meant as in-jokes. Non Caseus? Latin for "no cheese". Non Mentha? "No mint". Good names for outposts at Mun and Minmus respectively, IMHO.
Anyway...
(1.5.1) Yesterday afternoon's activities began with the design of the Gumdrop 7, a craft designed solely to land a surface scanner on Duna. Printing of a series of these craft is now scheduled to take place from LSV House Harkonnen over Duna after Harkonnen completes its latest Pink Noise 7 communications probe carrier, which is destined for Ike. The goal is to find a suitable site for the establishment of the Enchova Central refinery outpost somewhere on the Dunan surface. I have an initial survey point selected, but history has shown me that I really can't rely on orbital scans to get that job done... Strange Cargo entered low orbit over Minmus and affected a successful docking at space station Minmusport; en route to the station, the Dunacomm Foxtrot communications probe was set into its final position, and printing of the Crater Maker 7 8-passenger lander completed at the Non Mentha Yards over Minmus. The Crater Maker's rendezvous with Minmusport was set and it arrived about twenty minutes after Strange Cargo docked. Shortly after the Crater Maker arrived, the Dunacomm Echo probe reached its final position, finishing up the communications network over Duna. Once that was done, Jeb along with tourists Kelsey and Sanler Kerman embarked on the Crater Maker, which then made its way to the Deepwater Horizon outpost on the surface. Jeb went aboard just long enough to finish out an expansion contract at DH, after which he went back aboard the Crater Maker and the lander returned safely to Minmusport. Refueling shots took place, after which Strange Cargo departed Minmusport for Kerbin.
Only a couple of other things happened. Scientist Ribsted Kerman and the South Base outpost near KSC completed a Soil Analysis for contract, and I checked in on the construction of the General Electric 7 XM jump-starting craft at the Non Caseus Yards over Mun. Owing to a delivery error the outpost didn't receive all the Rocket Parts it needed to complete the GE, and as a result the probe wasn't complete like I thought it would be. The necessary parts were shot up to Non Caseus from the Piper Alpha outpost on the Munar surface and construction resumed, putting things about two days behind schedule.
The late afternoon and evening were spent with the transition from 1.5.1 to 1.6.1. A fair number of the makers of the mods I use could stand to update their online versioning information; KSC-AVC was so full on the initial load up that I couldn't close the window. The bulk of my mods are working in 1.6.1, though KSP-AVC is reporting that the version of Extraplanetary Launchpads I've got is incompatible with 1.6.1, something I've not yet had time to investigate yet let alone attempt to rectify. Initially I had issues with OSE Workshop as well, but it turned out I had downloaded a version of the mod from like KSP v1.2 or so; installation of a more up-to-date version took care of that on the quick-fast. AG Extended also wasn't working at first but it turned out I'd failed to download a dependency; once that was done it fired right up. I also may have uncovered an issue with the Pathfinder mod but I want to be sure that it's a bonafide bug before I go pester Angel about it. Mod testing will continue probably throughout the weekend as time allows, but I hope to get back to my career save as soon as I can tell whether all the crucial stuff is working or not.

You're not running the drive and the exotic matter generator at the same time, are you? That'll get you every time...
Can we see a screenie of the craft you're using? Also, what mods are you using? I'm primarily interested in what you've got for power generation and storage.
Still works just fine - this screenie is from two days ago:
The braking as you approach failsafe isn't working quite right right now (at least not by my observations); other than that it's perfectly fine.
Speaking of which, @helaeon and @RoverDude, I'm trying to get you guys some hard data on that. It's definitely jumping from E-7 or E-8C to 0.001 C somewhere along the line, at least it has been in my local save. The behavior's been consistent in all SOIs I've visited so far since v1.5.1; came damn close to hitting Minmus once, warp got me down to 23,000 m. I'll do some more tests.

(1.5.1; 1.6.x Launch Day) Yesterday afternoon and evening wasn't as eventful as I'd hoped it would be; my lack of activity can be attributed to television watching, which is not something I can honestly say for myself very often any more...
First thing that happened after yesterday's report was Necessary Evil's delivery to space station Kerbinport.
Necessary Evil's core booster discarded and ready to burn for re-entry, with Kerbinport in the background. Yes, of the screenies I took yesterday afternoon, this is the only one that was remotely interesting-looking...
The ship affected a successful docking at the station, after which seven colonists bound for the Deepwater Horizon outpost on Minmus boarded. Next Objective, which had departed the station immediately ahead of Necessary Evil's arrival with another eight Minmus-bound colonists aboard, conducted her burn to Minmus, with Necessary Evil departing Kerbinport and doing the same one orbit later. Both ships are due to arrive in Minmus's sphere of influence in 4.5 days.
The SCSS 7a mission to retrieve a MOLE laboratory from the surface of Minmus was scrubbed on account of there being insufficient personnel available to lug the thing onto the craft. The craft made its way back to the Non Mentha Yards orbiting Minmus, where scientist Kathald Kerman and engineer Sulan Kerman bailed out and jet-packed their way back inside the station. The SCSS was then maneuvered back into Non Mentha's drydock, the recycler unit was activated and the craft was broken down. With colonists on the way to Minmus and an extant need for a high-capacity passenger lander in the area, a Crater Maker 7 8-passenger lander was ordered up at Non Mentha; printing of this craft finished up this morning and the craft has already made a burn for its delivery to space station Minmusport. In related news regarding preparations for Minmus's colonization, a Mineshaft docking tube was ordered up at Deepwater Horizon and was attached to the outpost's exterior near its launch pad. The Mineshaft will hook up specifically to the Crater Maker to allow the tourists to offload to the outpost. Better that than piping them out or shooting them over via KAS winch cable...
LSV House Harkonnen's mission over Duna continued with the completion of the printing of a second Pink Noise 7 communications satellite carrier. The Pink Noise was released from Harkonnen's drydock and burned to its target apoapsis. As of this morning, the craft is approaching apoapsis for circularization, at which point the sub-satellites will separate and be deployed to their target positions. The whole process should take no more than three hours, at which time Duna will have a completed communications network. Harkonnen is printing yet another Pink Noise probe at this point, which will set the initial comm satellite network over Ike. Printing of this probe will take two days to complete. I'm considering sending Harkonnen to Ike directly - the next exploration contract is to orbit Ike - but I'm hesitant to do so, since the Pink Noise can also handle the contract and I'm pretty sure the next exploration contract will involve landing on Duna...
Not much else of note happened. Strange Cargo arrived in the Minmus sphere of influence yesterday; a plane change burn to align it with Minmusport took place this morning. A transfer stage for the nascent General Electric 7 XM jump-start craft was added and one of these craft was ordered up at the Non Caseus Yards over Mun, the SCSS 7a was redesigned to increase its crew complement from two to three kerbals, and a deliverable MOLE laboratory RTK craft dubbed the McFeely Sr. 7 was designed; one of these will be printed up at NCY once the General Electric is finished, with the task of delivering a gravioli wave experiment from the Stevie Wonder 7 solar observatory over Mun to the surface of Kerbin. The General Electric, when completed, will be heading over to the Dystopia Planitia shipyard over Kerbin when it's ready, where construction of LSV House Atreides is underway. If all goes according to plan, the GE should have sufficient megajoules available to pump-fill Atreides to 270 units of Exotic Matter before it leaves drydock, which would be enough to get the new ship close enough to Kerbol to finish filling its XM tank.
Today is my scheduled launch day for 1.6.x - I suppose officially I can say "1.6.1", since that's where the game is at. I'll be going through my mods one by one as time allows today to check to see if they are working, and if so, I'll make the switch at some point. Normally I would start a new career save with a new version, but I feel that my 1.5.1 career save is just now getting good, so I'll break with tradition and continue my save in the new version. Y'all will have to let me know if the devs have done anything particularly cool or annoying with the early career game...

(1.5.1, T-1 day to 1.6.x) I began my afternoon yesterday with the completion of the printing of the SCSS 7a garbage collection craft at the Non Mentha Yards over Minmus. The craft was fueled and scientist Kathald Kerman along with station engineer Sulan Kerman boarded it, subsequently landing near the target object, which turned out to be a MOLE laboratory. The area was very hilly and I landed at night, so I decided to wait until daylight to attempt retrieval. It turned out that I couldn't retrieve it anyway. I had misread the mission parameters - the target weighed 2.5 tonnes, not 1.5 tonnes like I'd thought - and wound up being short a kerbal at the site...
The gravioli wave experiment ongoing at the Stevie Wonder 7 solar observatory over Mun was finally completed, and at this point all I need to do to finish out the corresponding contract is to send the results back to Kerbin. On a similar vein, a pair of ice cream experiments finished up on Kerbin, and in their wake I picked up another outpost mission for Mun and a contract to put fifteen colonists out at Deepwater Horizon on Minmus. The payout on the colonization mission was huge - nearly √90M on final completion - and I wasn't about to pass it up. An Auk VII 16-passenger spaceplane was launched to space station Kerbinport carrying colonists Dunfred, Matpond, Mitlorf, Shepry, Gildock, Lekin, Gwenuki, Anemy, Carcas, Sigzer, Gemner, Isazor, Tanmon, Aldlorf, and Loble Kerman aboard, docking successfully at the station.
One of these years I've got to get around to flipping the docking port around on the VII design. I'm just glad the mass driver's not longer than it is...
Eight of the colonists boarded Next Objective docked at the station, while the other seven were offloaded to the station's hitchhiker modules. Tourist Chadsey Kerman and rescuee-pilot Janpont Kerman loaded aboard the Auk, which then returned safely to KSC 09.
With Strange Cargo already on assignment and the Dystopia Planitia shipyards in LKO already in use, it was necessary for me to launch a new Superfortress 7 ferry ship - Necessary Evil - the old fashioned way. Pilot Adler Kerman and scientist Frovan Kerman, the two resurrectees from the demise of the Swamp Castle outpost near KSC, manned the craft as it made its way to Kerbinport.
"Launch a rocket from the surface of Kerbin". What an utterly novel concept!!
Once the rendezvous with the station was set, Next Objective departed Kerbinport and her transfer burn for Minmus was set up. Necessary Evil arrived and docked safely, and the remaining seven colonists were loaded aboard. The plan is for Next Objective to make her transfer burn to Minmus and then for Necessary Evil to depart the station and conduct her transfer burn on the next orbit.
But by far the biggest news of the day is what was going on with LSV House Harkonnen's historic mission to Duna. Having reached the required position for ramp-down and final warp to Duna, Harkonnen proceeded to do so.
LSV House Harkonnen en route to Duna, having just acheived light-speed.
The craft arrived over Duna, inadvertently encountering Ike on her way in. A corrective warp was required upon arrival to slow down enough, but eventually the ship settled in to a stable 320 kilometer equatorial orbit.
Hey great, we're here! Now, where's the urinal?
Upon arrival, the first order of business was to deploy the Pink Noise 7 communications satellite carrier that the crew aboard Harkonnen had printed during the transit.
Pink Noise 7 departing from LSV House Harkonnen's drydock.
The probe went into a target orbit over Duna and then the two sub-satellites were deployed, taking 2 hours and 40 minutes to deploy into their final positions and setting up the planet's initial comms satellite constellation (Dunacomm Alpha, Dunacomm Bravo and Dunacomm Charlie) in the process. Meanwhile, the crew aboard Harkonnen began printing up the ScanSat Duna survey probe and the ship warped into a polar orbit. That probe was also completed and released, an an initial survey of Duna for colony sites took place. The ship's crew is now printing up another Pink Noise probe to finish up Duna's comm satellite constellation (Dunacomms Delta, Echo and Foxtrot), a process which is scheduled to take approximately two days to complete. At that point, what happens next will be largely dependent on the number of Rocket Parts the ship is still carrying at that point - if the craft has enough to print up a Hellhound 7 rover and skycrane, it will do that. Otherwise, another Pink Noise will likely be printed up, this start setting up the Ikecomm network - I already have the exploration contract to orbit Ike, so that makes sense.
With the need to construct additional craft over Duna apparent and with the ability to do so, construction of a new Muad'dib 7 Alcubierre Drive mothership began at the Dystopia Planitia shipyards over Kerbin. LSV House Atreides will be complete in approximately ten days. I've already come up with a plan to more easily fill up her exotic matter tanks; the design of a capacitor bank - dubbed General Electric 7 - took place this morning, though I still need to either design a booster or a transfer stage for the craft; haven't decided which just yet.
Today I plan to get Next Objective and Necessary Evil on their way to Minmus. Strange Cargo is just about there with her tour group, so I may be working on those today as well, and Harkonnen will continue their initial conquest of Duna as well.
Some other things have happened today, but I'll leave those to report with tomorrow's log.

(1.5.1; T-2 days to 1.6.x) No screenies today, y'all. Sorry.
Yesterday began with the successful conclusion of the Auk XIII single-passenger spaceplane flight carrying tourist Gilbree Kerman on a simple up-and-down. The plane landed safely at KSC 27, after which I received a pair of contracts to expand the Deepwater Horizon outpost on Minmus (because obviously a base that can already hold over 150 kerbals that has only three kerbals manning it is lacking in space). The first was fulfilled relatively quickly but the second will have to await the arrival of Strange Cargo, which conducted a gravity assist burn of 62 m/s off of Kerbin coming back from Mun; the ship will arrive at Minmus in nine days time. Deepwater Horizon also assisted me in yet another successful ore-drilling con job.
LSV House Harkonnen finished her ramp-up free fall to warp into a stable "low" orbit (1.6 Gm) over Kerbol; she'll reach position for ramp-down and final warp to Duna orbit in about 4.5 days give-or-take. I was happy to find that the math I used to determine how long it would take the ship to reach its intended ramp-up speed of 25 kps (8 hours and 32 minutes) wasn't that far off, with the discrepancies easily attributed to rounding errors. While that was ongoing, she completed her printing of a Pink Noise 7 triple communications satellite carrier; the satellites are ultimately intended to be deployed in equatorial orbit over Duna.
In an attempt to determine why certain LDEF soil analyses were not working yesterday, I transferred the projects from Doc commercial labs over to dedicated Geology Labs at both South Base near KSC and Piper Alpha on Mun. This worked; the project at South Base is finally collecting data, while the one at Piper Alpha completed itself instantaneously. The Venkmann 7b probe I'd erroneously launched from the Dystopia Planitia shipyard over Kerbin a few days ago with an LDEF orbital tools experiment (which requires a crewman to do) returned to the shipyard and was successfully recycled, and to replace it in a manner in which the experiment could be done properly, I designed the Fred Savage 7 MOLE laboratory module and began printing it up at Dystopia Planitia; upon completion the module was transferred to space station Kerbinport. Owing to the fact that there were no scientists assigned to the station, it fell to rescuee pilot Janpont Kerman to begin the experiment. Finally, with another surface junk hauling mission in the pipe, I redesigned the SCSS 7 garbage hauling craft extensively. The SCSS 7a is a two-kerbal craft designed for single-use; upon successful completion of its mission, the crew is to bail out and the craft will be recycled. Printing of an SCSS 7a is in progress at the Non Mentha Yards over Minmus and is nearing completion as of this post.
At the moment, I have nothing really to do besides let things finish running and/or printing, so it's likely that House Harkonnen will make her final warp to Duna today. The plan is to put up a communications satellite constellation over Duna first, then drop in a surface scanner to find potential landing sites. After that, a Hellhound 7 rover will be dropped to the surface to verify a site, at which point Harkonnen will have to go back to Kerbin - she may be capable of printing up a TBD base-seeding rover, but the necessary resources to ensure a successful deployment of such a rover are back at home right now. I still haven't decided if I'll start afresh with 1.6.x as is tradition; I'm leaning on "not" for once, given the amount of time and resources I've put into my 1.5.1 save and the fact that I'm just now getting to Duna...

(1.5.1; T-3 days to 1.6.x) Had a fairly busy day overall yesterday. With the need to add an adapter to LSV House Harkonnen so that a Minnow 7 ferry craft could dock, I went ahead and designed one and printed it up at the Dystopia Planitia shipyards. The adapter was fueled and sent on to rendezvous with Harkonnen, arriving successfully.
Sometimes the simple things are worth a screenie, I guess.
Over Mun, I designed a variant of the Venkmann 7 science lander for the purpose of delivering Research Kits to the Stevie Wonder 7 solar observatory in orbit, printing up the new probe at the Non Caseus Yards. Upon completion and fueling, I realized I'd forgotten to include any sort of electrical system - no batteries, panels, nothing. Fortunately, I had a Spamcan 7a lander docked at NCY and dispatched it to dock with the probe and ferry it to the telescope; this plan was successful, with both craft docking safely, allowing the ongoing gravioli wave experiment at Wonder to continue.
Shortly before the debacle with the Venkmann, a Minnow 7 craft departed space station Kerbinport with Val, Bill, pilot Billy-Bobcal, scientist Wenmy Kerman and engineers Gemlorf and Chadul Kerman aboard, heading for a rendezvous with House Harkonnen. The craft arrived and the new adapter performed as expected.
Didn't I already do this screenie once already in this post?
Unfortunately, upon arrival none of my kerbals could board House Harkonnen, despite the fact that the Mk1 Docking Port used in the Buffalo mod said it wouldn't be a problem. Several solutions were considered - in the end, it was decided to print up a Black and Decker 7 delivery probe lander at Dystopia Planitia, have station engineer Jergar Kerman grab the KAS screwdrivers out of the craft's default payload, load them into the station's mass driver and shoot them directly to Harkonnen.
Note to self - replace the standard KAS container aboard the Black and Decker with a Pathfinder Buckboard. Jergar will thank you in the future.
The plan actually worked as intended, but upon returning to Harkonnen, the crew was allowed to board without issues. I suppose all I really needed to do was re-load the craft. The upshot of this, I suppose, is that the crewmembers aboard Harkonnen are now well-endowed with KAS screwdrivers...
After recycling the rest of the Black and Decker at Dystopia Planitia, House Harkonnen's own on-board dockyard was brought online and a second docking adapter was printed up for a personal warp drive experiment. Meanwhile, Strange Cargo arrived at space station Munport and refueling shots between the Piper Alpha outpost on the surface and the station took place. The station's Spamcan 7a lander was dispatched to Piper Alpha with Bob and tourists Rodlorf and Melfrey aboard, arriving safely at the outpost. Bob got out to assume his post at the outpost's science lab, beginning a couple of experiments upon his arrival.
Trajectories told me I was going to hit the center of the landing pad dead on. Probably means it's time to update the waypoint for the center of the pad...
Rodlorf and Melfrey then returned successfully to Munport, though they had skosh fuel upon rendezvous. A final set of refueling shots took place, after which Strange Cargo departed for Minmus, burning for Kerbin to pick up a gravity assist.
Upon completion of the printing of the new adapter module aboard Harkonnen, the ship engaged its Alcubierre Drive and proceeded to warp to Minmus, finalizing its orbit on conventional thrust. A series of three refueling shots were required to fully equip Harkonnen for its historic journey to Duna; the warp from Kerbin to Minmus fulfilled the experiment I was running (mainly my own curiosity there), so it was released and allowed to dock to the ship. With that done, House Harkonnen again engaged her warp drive, this time heading over Kerbol to top off her exotic matter tanks once again.
Ugh...the ship is backlit. Who put that star there, anyway?
With that done, the ship warped to Duna, fulfilling the flyby exploration contract. New contract involved putting a craft in orbit and gaining science, so the craft warped back to Kerbol to pick up enough speed to enter Kerbolar orbit; the idea is to get into a proper position to then bleed off enough speed to directly warp into low Duna orbit. As of this morning, the ship's in free-fall over Kerbol. Did some calculations there; I might ask the KSP community to check my math to see if I did it right...
That's pretty much been what's been going on so far. Some Pathfinder Gold Digger drills were printed up at Piper Alpha and the South Base outpost near KSC in an attempt to pick up some CoreSamples, and I began an Auk XIII single-passenger spaceplane flight with tourist Gilbree Kerman aboard; she's just doing a simple up-and-down, and had completed the de-orbit burn when I had to shut the game off. Today I'll be finishing up that flight, and I'm hoping to get Harkonnen to Duna.

(1.5.1, T-4 days to 1.6.x) Not much accomplished over the past 39 hours; no screenies to show for it either. After pulling off yet another ore-drilling con job using the Deepwater Horizon outpost at Minmus and a Con Job 7 ore tank at KSC, Next Objective docked at space station Kerbinport and after refueling the craft, I went ahead and transferred Val, Bill, pilot Billy-Bobcal Kerman, scientist Wenmy Kerman, and engineers Gemlorf and Chadul Kerman to the Minnow 7 craft also docked at Kerbinport. I realized that the smaller Minnow would be perfect to use within the limited warp bubble of LSV House Harkonnen to get a crew to Duna, as opposed to the significantly larger Superfortress 7 design (of which Next Objective is one). Only issue is that the docking ports on Harkonnen weren't compatible with the Minnow, and to that end I designed an adapter and started printing one up at the Dystopia Planitia orbital shipyard. Similarly, a kit was designed to deliver more research kits to the Stevie Wonder 7 kerbolar observatory over Mun and construction of the kit began at the Non Caseus Yards also over Mun. Finally, I decided I wanted to go ahead and build a Pathfinder Castillo module for the South Base outpost near KSC, with a goal of stabilizing the base's physics when it loads up. I designed a rover (later designated as It's Only A Model 7) to take it and the prerequisite materials to South Base for deployment. Owing to events in RL, I was only finally able to deploy the thing this morning. Took three tries; at least on the final attempt none of the rover wheels or the Castillo module itself spontaneously exploded...
Goals for the near future remain the same as they were the other day - I want to crew Harkonnen and get her to Duna, reload Wonder with kits so an experiment there can finish itself up, and get Bob out to the Piper Alpha outpost on Mun. Running out of time to get these rather basic tasks accomplished...

(1.5.1, T-6 days to 1.6.x). I've had an interesting past couple of days. After fixing some issues with the remote pads at my bases and orbital shipyards, I launched a Bill Clinton 7b grabber probe from the Non Caseus Yards over Mun. The probe intercepted Lerod's Debris, grabbing the craft and taking it safely to Kerbin for a successful junk-and-kerbal mission. The Venkmann 7a science probe over Kerbin completed a long-term cryogenics study in orbit and then de-orbited, reaching the surface safely.
At that point, I checked in with the crew at the nascent Boot Hill outpost on Mun. It was quickly clear to me that something was slightly awry...
I'm pretty sure the underlying issue was leaving that new KAS resource transfer station attached to the base while I went to do other things. It was obvious that Boot Hill was a write-off, and after piling the crew out, the base was scrapped and a Spamcan 7a lander was dispatched from space station Munport to pick them up. Owing to the timing at which the 'Can arrived, the crew headed on to Non Caseus, where the ferry ship Next Objective was still parked. A second Spamcan already at NCY departed for Munport (docking safely before the day was out) while the first docked and refueling mass driver shots from the Piper Alpha outpost on Mun took place. Once refueled, Next Objective departed for Kerbin.
Pilot Gregald Kerman embarked aboard a Minnow 7 utility craft docked at space station Kerbinport and went to go pick up retreive pilot Janpont Kerman over Kerbin; a successful rendezvous and jetpack took place and the pair of pilots returned to Kerbinport. The South Base near KSC successfully brought its Pipeline mass driver online, bring the base one step closer to being able to commence operations. Last thing that happened on Thursday was an attempt to go ahead and get the Muad'dib 7-type Alcubierre Drive ship LSV House Harkonnen to a stable low orbit over Kerbol, despite not being fully fueled; I had spent the past few days pumping up her exotic matter tank when I had a spare moment, and decided to see if I'd done it enough to get her to a position where the onboard solar panels could finish the job on their own. Only 150 units of exotic matter were spent in the transit, as it turned out...
On Friday, I decided to take the final steps to try and get South Base fully operational; thirteen Chuckwagon warehouses were hauled out to South Base from the KSC runway tucked in a Buckboard-600 loaded on a Wisent 7 utility rover. The plan was to attach the rover via KAS connector and then just transfer the warehouses over to the base from there. It was here that I figured out the KAS connectors were causing issues; the rover went airborne upon docking but held the connection, and after the warehouses were offloaded and the KAS pipe undocked, things went back to normal. Eight of the Chuckwagons were added to South Base, giving the base storage for fuel, oxidizer, monopropellant, rocket parts and equipment as well as extra power. I was able to undock the original TBD 7a rover that had set up the base and recover it, and once I'd installed three SAFER reactors for the base's mass driver, operations were able to commence, starting with an op to refuel Kerbinport. Kerbinport took three shots to refuel fully; it had been a tad neglected since the loss of Swamp Castle...
Next, a new Venkmann 7a probe was printed up at the Dystopia Planitia shipyards for an experiment that, as it turns out, requires one crewmember; I have yet to do anything with the probe as of this post. House Harkonnen completed filling up her exotic matter tanks and warped back to a relatively low orbit over Kerbin. Next Objective safely returned from Mun and set up a rendezvous with Kerbinport. Meanwhile, an Auk-II 8-passenger plane was sent up to Kerbinport with pilots Wilfrey and Gwenlock Kerman aboard as well as tourists Kelsey, Shepus, Rodlorf, Melfrey and Siguki Kerman. The tourists boarded Strange Cargo docked at the station, which then departed for Mun, coming within three klicks of Dystopia Planitia during the transfer burn.
Next up on my agenda is to get a crew aboard House Harkonnen. The craft still needs to get to Minmus, but with a full tank of XM now, it should be able to warp there directly if I'm careful about it. Push comes to shove I can get her close enough and going slow enough to be able to bring her into orbit on conventional drives. Once there she'll be filling up on Xenon stored at the Deepwater Horizon outpost, and from there it's on to Duna. I need to deliver more Research Kits to the Stevie Wonder 7 solar observatory over Mun so it can finish up an important experiment there. I also have a few experiments to on Mun, and with Boot Hill's cancellation, they'll have to be done at Piper Alpha. To that end, Bob's heading out that way now - he's the only scientist I've got with the prerequisite level of experience that isn't already deployed. In fact, at this point I've got everybody deployed - not a good state of affairs if something comes up back home...

(1.5.1, T-8 days to 1.6.x) Yesterday can best be described using the kind of invective that the forum administrators have expressly forbidden, which in this case is unfortunate. No screenies today, and that's probably for the best.
A thorough investigation at the South Base near KSC into the reasons why it's not producing Slag came up empty. As far as I can tell all the necessary preconditions - positive base productivity (+8), operating Geology Lab Prospector unit, working drill and dedicated Slag warehouse - are there, but still nothing is happening. KML'd the warehouse half full; that will at least get me to the point where I can make Konkrete there. I would've preferred to do things the intended way. Oh well...
Assembly of the new Boot Hill base on Mun also went awry; something is borked badly either with my local instance of KSP, KAS and/or Pathfinder. I've got bits and pieces of bases that connect just fine, but then when I go back to look at them later, there are 2-3 meter gaps everywhere. The base's remote exotic minerals processor destroyed itself three times during assembly yesterday, and this morning the main base has managed to turn itself 90 degrees; the TBD 7b base-seeding rover is still attached and is now listing 45 degrees to port; I'm afraid the damn thing's going to tip over and kill a pair of very smart kerbals in the process...
So not much done these past 24 hours. I may proceed with an upgrade to 1.6.x early and do a fresh start of everything if this all continues today. I should at least take LSV House Harkonnen out for one spin before calling it quits, though...

(1.5.1, T-9 days to 1.6.x) Had a fairly frustrating day yesterday. With planetary operations over Kerbin suspended following Monday's Kraken attack on Swamp Castle and the base's subsequent complete loss, I wanted to get a new south base facility up as quickly as I possibly could. To that end, I designed a Buffalo craft to haul all the remaining structures along with the Equipment needed to deploy them directly from KSC. The resultant craft, dubbed Flying Circus 7, deployed from KSC 09 costing me √440k; this was still less than the cost of one of my old Piper Alpha 7 refinery craft, so I dealt with it. Had some issues getting it off the Runway ramp initially but ultimately it made it to the South Base site and engineer Beamon Kerman began a rapid expansion project. The damn Kraken decided to strike again, first knocking all the wheels off the Flying Circus and then blowing several of the storage structures as the base continued to grow, knocking several of them askew for good measure. The base looks like crap now, but at least all the intended industrial structures are up and running, so operations began to deploy a new ground Pipeline mass driver. The base is still not making any Slag for Konkrete production, which has me perplexed - it has the storage structure needed, it has the drills, it has the required lab going, it has a positive productivity rating, but still no Slag...
Pump-filling of the exotic matter tank aboard LSV House Harkonnen continued yesterday. I reached 513 XM before the day was out, which was over my original target goal of 500 for the craft. At this point I'm content to allow Harkonnen to continue on to Minmus to complete Xenon fueling before beginning its first mission, which will be to proceed to a position over Kerbol for final XM fueling before heading on to a Duna flyby. Meanwhile, I went ahead and brought the craft's onboard dockyard online, even though with no one aboard I can't actually use the thing yet.
LSV House Harkonnen, ready to dominate the spice trade.
The ferry ship Next Objective reached Mun yesterday and put into dock at the Non Caseus Yards, where a TBD 7b base-seeding rover had been printed up for establishment of a new Mun outpost.
Next Objective putting into dock at NCY, with the TBD rover visible.
Pilot Billy-Bobcal Kerman, scientist Wenmy Kerman and engineer Chadul Kerman boarded the rover, final checks were completed and the drydock clamps released:
TBD 7b under power.
The crew ultimately set the rover down about 6 kilometers west of the target zone, roughly 900 meters from the skycrane of the Hellhound 7 rover Rogue 5, which was still in the area. Originally I went ahead with the rove and base construction despite it being morning twilight in the area, but the Kraken decided to attack the nascent base as well and I pulled a revert. I'll be attempting construction again this morning. Meanwhile, with the dock finally cleared out and with a junk-and-kerbal rescue contract at Mun to fulfill, a Bill Clinton 7b grabber probe was ordered up at NCY.
Building is the order of business for today. I need to reassess the issues going on at South Base and re-print the structures I need to carry on operations, as well as figure out why Slag production isn't happening. The TBD mission will continue, and with luck I'll be able to carry out the aforementioned rescue mission as well. Kinda hoping to get to use House Harkonnen in her primary flight mode at some point today as well.

(1.5.1, T-10 days to 1.6.x) It was a slow day (but an important one) yesterday owing to events in RL. The day began with the flight of an Auk XIII single-passenger spaceplane, carrying tourist Chadsey Kerman up to space station Kerbinport. The plane's departure necessitated a catch-up maneuver with Kerbinport so the rendezvous took much longer than normal, but ultimately it did arrive and dock safely. Chadsey swapped places with rescuee Ribsted Kerman, recently retrieved from Minmus aboard the ferry ship Next Objective. Ribsted departed Kerbinport and made his way to the surface, landing safely at KSC 27.
While Chadsey was still on his way to Kerbinport, the Dystopia Planitia orbital shipyard reported that construction of LSV House Harkonnen was complete. An initial attempt to send fuel for the ship from the Swamp Castle outpost near KSC did not go so well - the game reported the base crashing into the ground and it wouldn't let me switch between craft, and yet the base still looked intact and some fuel and enriched uranium were successfully transferred. It was abundantly clear at that point that Swamp Castle was not going to be usable for much longer; I got engineer Beaman Kerman out of the outpost so that I could at least switch craft. What I should've realized was that a Kraken attack was in progress - I should've also got scientist Frovan Kerman and pilot Alder Kerman out of the base while I still had the chance. When I did finally head back to Swamp Castle, well...
Beamon beginning a three kilometer hike.
Apparently Swamp Castle had burned down, fell over and then sank into the swamp while I wasn't looking. Had to perform some KML necromancy to resurrect Frovan and Alder this morning. The effort to begin building the fifth iteration of the South Base also began...
But I digress from my moment of triumph!
LSV House Harkonnen leaving the Dystopia Planitia drydock.
House Harkonnen left dock with about 1200 m/s of delta-V and enough enriched uranium to run her SAFER reactors, and there was an available supply of Xenon for her Alcubierre drive at the Deepwater Horizon outpost on Minmus sufficient enough to fill her to capacity, so the ship set a maneuver to take her to Minmus and burned using conventional drives. She deployed her Gigantors solar panels and brought the nuke reactors online, and the process of "pump-filling" the drive's exotic matter tanks commenced - basically, once her IFS Capacitor and conventional batteries were fully charged, I'd run the exotic matter generator until the ship was just about out of power, then shut it off and let the system recharge, a cyclical process that takes about 2 minutes and 45 seconds game-time. As of this morning, the ship's got just over 400 units of exotic matter in the tank (capacity is 15,000 units). The plan is to get it at least as far as 750 via pump-filling, which should be enough to run the drive long enough to sun-dive close enough to Kerbol for the Gigantors to really kick in and fully charge the tank.
As the replacement contract for Ribsted's rescue did not involve more tourists, it was go-time for the crew of the planned new outpost on Mun, and with both them and Chadsey aboard, Next Objective departed for Mun; she'll arrive in 3.5 hours. Plan for today is to get them to Mun, continue rebuilding the South Base, and continue with pump-filling House Harkonnen. I'm at that point where a third of my contracts are Duna/Ike related, so getting Harkonnen up and running is a top priority, and operations at Kerbin are effectively halted until I can get a surface mass driver rebuilt. I do need to run the numbers to see how much it would take to brute-force the South Base back to the same level of efficacy it had before the Kraken attack. I imagine it won't be cheap. On the other hand, I may not have the time to scratch build two bases at once, either in-game or in RL...